Jerusalem: Israeli authorities on Wednesday approved building permits for 240 new homes in settlement neighbourhoods in Jerusalem´s eastern sector, Deputy Mayor Meir Turjeman told AFP.
A city planning committee approved 90 units in Gilo and another 150 in Ramat Shlomo, Turjeman said, the latest in a series of moves to enhance Jewish presence in the contested Israeli-annexed Palestinian sector of the city.
Turjeman noted the committee also approved 44 units for Palestinians in their neighbourhood of Beit Hanina.
Jerusalem´s status is ultra-sensitive and central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.
It sees the entire city as its indivisible capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.